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Avellana Recipes

Prepare yourself for this decadent (yet shockingly healthy) vegan feast!! Following, you will find detailed plans (and shortcuts) to making this crazy good, super healthy, gem of a lasagna.

What you need:

3-4 zucchini

16-32 oz tofu (from scratch or store bought)

2.5 C of fermented soy ricotta (link here)

One jar tomato sauce

8 oz chopped mushrooms

One bunch broccoli

One small head cauliflower

Kalamata olives

Garlic

Soy yogurt

Italian herb mix

1. Cook up some tofu crumbles. (Link here)

2. Cut the zucchini into thin strips. You can use a mandolin but I’m not capable of using them without cutting off the end of my finger. Plus this part is VERY satisfying i me. Meditative even.

3. Toss down a layer of sauce (not much, maybe 1/2 c) and a layer of zuk noodles.

4. Rough chop the cauliflower and layer it, then put another layer of zuk noodles.

5. Mix two cloves of squished or minced garlic (or garlic powder in a pinch) and 1/2 t salt into the ricotta.

6. Layer the ricotta on. Don’t make it too thick, it’s meant to be an accent to the veggies.

7. Rough chop the broccoli and layer it.

8. Add mushrooms and kalamata. Put another 1/2 cup of sauce on top of this layer.

9. Layer on tofu crumbles.

10. Put another layer of zucchini, then the remaining sauce.

11. Mix Italian herbs and salt and more squished garlic or garlic powder and onion to taste into soy yogurt. You can also add nutritional yeast and a little vegan maya here if you like. Put this on top of the sauce.

12. Cook at 375 until you hear it bubbling (around 30 minutes) then take the lid off and cook for another 5-7 to brown up the cheesy layer on top.

Once this is done cooking it will have a good amount of liquid that cooked off the veggies. You can leave it in or CAREFULLY pour it off. I usually pour it off and drink it because it’s delicious. This meal depends heavily on the mixing of the flavors of all the vegetables. I found that the cheese in a non vegan lasagna was really the dominant flavor. This is a super complex and delicately flavored meal. You won’t miss the dairy!

Avellana Morel Poppers

You’re going to need to sit down for this. But you won’t be for very long after your first bite. My first bite got me up and dancing around the living room in ecstatic food bliss. I promise, you will not be disappointed by the results of this combination of flavors, it’s at the very least magnificent.

Here’s what you need:

Some morel mushrooms- It’s springtime in Oregon, and you know what that means….morel season! We had a great time going out and finding our own, but if you’re not mushroom savvy or don’t have the time, many grocery stores that carry local produce will often have fresh morels for sale. We used about 2 cups worth for this recipe

1 cup Gluten free tempura

Faux egg replacer (two eggs worth)

Avellana Signature cheese

Making these poppers is actually quite easy… put about a cup of gluten free tempura flour (I used this one, which is pretty good) in a quart size ziplock bag. Mix up two faux eggs using Ener-G egg replacer (one T egg replacer and five T water).

Brush or wipe any dirt off the mushrooms and carefully split them down one side. Fill each mushroom with as much creamy Avellana signature cheese as would comfortably fit inside the hollow centers. It was surprising how little of the block it actually took. I used our spicy Berbere, but you could use any flavor you like best.

Then, dip them in the egg replacer, put them in the bag, and shake it up. I like a thicker breading on my mushrooms, so I repeated the egg replacer dip and the bag shake to get a good coating. You could do it up to three times, but it gets a little messy by the third time.

Put a good amount of oil into a skillet and fry them for a minute or two on each side, until they get to the right crispy-ness. Here’s an image of the popper cut open showing the delicious layer combination of Avellana Signature Cheese, morel mushroom and crispy tempura.

Oh My Goodness- too good! I tell ya, too good! Wow! They may look a little funny, but what a beautiful taste! ♥